THE BOOK BY CARL GRIFFITHS

165KGTO 88KG

How I lost 12 stone
in just 10 years.

I lost the weight. Put two and a half stone back on. Then figured out how to keep going.

This is the whole story. Including the bits I’d quite happily leave out.

Explore the book ↗Read an excerpt

A real story. Practical advice. A few swear words.

See the ten-year journey ↓
165kg to 88kg: How I Lost 12 Stone in Just 10 Years, by Carl Griffiths
THE LONG WAY ROUND. WRITTEN DOWN.
10 YEARS OF TRIAL & ERROR15 CHAPTERSGYM & HOME PROGRAMMESKEEPING IT OFF, TOO

IF YOU’VE STARTED AGAIN. AGAIN.

You’ll probably
recognise a bit
of yourself.

Atkins. Keto. Weight Watchers. Slimming World. Some of them worked brilliantly. For about six weeks.

In February 2016, I weighed 165kg and my waist was 56 inches. I knew what starting over felt like. I was getting quite good at it.

This book covers the ten years that followed: losing weight, regaining some, getting stuck, and learning what I could actually keep doing when life got in the way.

Alongside my story, there’s practical help with food, training, sleep, habits and the year after you reach your target. Because getting there is only part of it.

Book formats & availability ↓

WHAT’S INSIDE

The stuff that matters.
And the stuff nobody mentions.

Fifteen chapters, from the bloke in the hoodie to keeping the weight off.

01 / THE MECHANICS

Understand the basics.

Calories, food and movement explained in plain English. Plus chapters on sleep, hormones and menopause.

02 / REAL LIFE

Deal with being human.

Motivation wearing off. Weekends, holidays and alcohol. Eating when the problem isn’t hunger.

03 / THE NEXT STEP

Find something you’ll do.

Gym and home training programmes, where to start, and how to keep going once you’ve got there.

See all 15 chapters
  1. The Bloke in the Hoodie
  2. The Bloke Who Bet On Me
  3. What’s Actually Going On
  4. The Stuff Nobody Tells You
  5. Moving
  6. Sleep
  7. Eating
  8. The Drink
  9. When It Isn’t About Food
  10. Hormones, Honestly
  11. Perimenopause and Menopause
  12. Things People Always Ask Me
  13. Where To Start
  14. Keeping It
  15. Becoming Someone Else

Epilogue: 3:47am

Carl before his weight loss, showing his full torso and belly from the side
BEFORE · SIDE VIEW
Carl before his weight loss, facing the mirror with his full torso and belly visible
BEFORE · FRONT VIEW
Carl after his weight loss, standing in the gym
A LOT OF WORK LATER

There are ten years between the numbers.
The book is about what happened in between.

WHO’S WRITING THIS?

I’m Carl.
I’ve been there.

I’m an online coach, and I used to be over twenty-six stone.

I started logging my food on a Friday in February 2016 with no plan and no idea what I was doing. Five months later I’d lost nearly three stone, looked in a mirror, couldn’t see a single pound of it, and joined a gym that same day anyway.

Since then, I’ve qualified as a coach and built a group training gym with over 100 members alongside a team of coaches. I later sold it and moved into online coaching, helping people wherever they happen to live.

I’ve spent the best part of a decade helping other people through the same things I struggled with. Losing weight. Putting it back on. Knowing what to do and still finding it bloody difficult to do it. Some of that might sound familiar.

Some of it went well. A chunk of it didn’t, and that chunk is the useful bit.

Speaking of 'chunk', check out my before photos.

Carl Griffiths

MY JOURNEY

Ten years.
Nothing tidied up.

My before-and-after photos leave quite a lot out. The regain. The year I got stuck. The years I kept going anyway.

Carl’s weight journey, 2016 to 2026Selected recorded milestones connected by straight lines, not every weigh-in: 165.1kg in February 2016, 127.4kg in November 2017, 142.9kg in April 2018, 111kg in November 2019 and 88kg in 2026. Much of 2018 was spent around 139 to 142kg. The 2026 point is shown at the year marker because an exact date was not supplied.8090100110120130140150160170201620182020202220242026WEIGHT / KG165.1kg127.4kg142.9kg111kg88kg

Selected recorded milestones from the book, connected for context. This is an overview, not every weigh-in. The final point marks 2026; an exact date isn’t shown. Open the full-size chart ↗

EXPLORE THE TURNING POINTS

The first entry.

No plan. No grand announcement. Just a number typed into a free app on a Friday.

Read the dates and numbers
Recorded milestones in Carl’s book
DateWeightWhat happened
26 February 2016165.1kgThe first entry. No plan. No grand announcement. Just a number typed into a free app on a Friday.
22 November 2017127.4kgNearly six stone gone. Twenty-one months of showing up. The lowest I’d been up to that point.
12 April 2018142.9kgAnd then I put some back on. Two and a half stone regained in about five months. There wasn’t a neat explanation. It happened, and I had to deal with it.
November 2019111kgMoving again. After spending much of 2018 around 139–142kg, the weight started moving again in January 2019. By November, I was 111kg.
202688kgStill here. Still going. Ten years after the first entry: 88kg. The number matters. So does everything I learned getting here.

WHAT I LEARNED ALONG THE WAY

01

Progress has rough bits.

My weight went up as well as down. The overall direction mattered more than an isolated bad week.

02

Regain wasn’t the end.

I put weight back on. I could still take the next step. It didn’t erase everything I’d learned.

03

The flat year counted.

I stayed around 139–142kg for much of 2018. When things moved again, I wasn’t starting from 165.

04

This was my timeline.

It took me ten years. Yours doesn’t have to look like mine. You can start with what you can do this week.

The photos show the difference.
The book tells you what it took.

Read a little of the story ↗

A LITTLE OF CHAPTER ONE

No grand
announcement.

The Bloke in the Hoodie

“The first was Friday 26 February 2016. 165.1kg.

That’s my first weigh-in logged in MyFitnessPal. No fanfare, no announcement, no declaration. Just a bloke typing a number into a free app on a Friday.”

165kg to 88kg · Chapter One, page 10

THE BOOK

Your story can
start on any day.

Mine happened to be a Friday.

165kg to 88kg

How I Lost 12 Stone in Just 10 Years

KindlePaperbackHardback

Purchase link coming soon.

Follow Carl on Instagram for book updates.

Book updates on Instagram ↗

WANT SOME HELP WITH YOUR VERSION?

The book is a start.
Coaching is personal.

I’m an online executive coach at PeakID, helping busy people make room for their health alongside everything else.

We start with your history, your injuries, your schedule, what you’ve tried, what you hated and what you’ve actually got in the house. Then build a plan around all of it.

Personalised training and nutrition, daily check-ins, and a plan we can change as you change. Bloodwork and lab testing, alongside data from your wearables, help inform the bigger picture.

We look at how you’re sleeping, recovering and feeling, too. You’re a person, not a collection of numbers on a dashboard.

PeakIDOnline executive coach at PeakID
Let’s talk about coaching ↗
Carl at his desk, seated behind his laptop
Carl Griffiths · Online executive coach, PeakID